


Early Morning Pizza with a Mermaid

by deerman



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 15:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18607612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deerman/pseuds/deerman
Summary: Drunk university student, Kang Daniel, is nursing his hangover headache in a neighborhood pizzeria in peace, when a young man suddenly appeared in front of him.





	Early Morning Pizza with a Mermaid

**Author's Note:**

> This is a response to a prompt I found on Twitter, with a theme like "Eating Pizza with a Mermaid". And I was bored and craving for nielhwi fics so I decided to create my own. Sorry for the juvenile efforts on writing. This is all so new to me.

_“Argh!”_ groaned Daniel as he massages his temples. His red ears like stop lights, signalling the rowdy and beer-reeking students outside to stop; the cars’ sirens in the late night rush to stop; and the whole rotating, spinning world in his vision to stop.

 

_“I only wanted to have a little bit of fun, but look where I am now.”_ he additionally lamented. And “look where he is” it is. A run-down, hole-in-the-wall pizzeria, adjacent to the screaming streets of the university town. The sleepless city lights on the streets contrast the fluid and slow neon lights illuminating the interior of the pizzeria, even offering the alcohol-tortured Daniel a kind of quiet repose against all the buzz outside. The gaudy multicoloured phoenixes on the scarlet wallpaper are even staring silently at him, almost lulling him into sleep. Yawning and resting his head on the creaky steel table, he shoots a glance outside and looks beyond the front glass. What greeted him is a rapid of unknown faces, he might have recognised a man or two as his classmates but he generally ignored them. His grudgingly poor situation of being dumped in a diner and left was all because of his university classmates.

 

_“Hey! A senior arranged a night out for the freshmen to get to know each other tonight!” cheered the man besides him._

_“They even said they’re paying. What nice seniors.”added the woman across the conference-style classroom as everyone burst out in cheers. This is their first week in the university and everybody is excited on the prospects of meeting new friends, doing something new and even of having a heart thumping relationship or two._

_But Daniel was different._

_“You’re going, right?” asked the man who borrowed a pen from him five minutes ago._

_“Yeah.” He hesitantly replied. Nevertheless, he maintained a smile in his face and nodded, appearing to be excited. He chuckled._

_Thus the day passed with students buzzing with excitement of the nearing party. And when the whole Business major batch has come together, each and every student spoke amicably with each other, with so much gusto. Daniel found himself in a middle of a compliment match with a good-looking senior named “Minhyun”._

_“No! You look so much better than me. I even heard from my classmates that a lot of them fancy you.” Daniel chimed in response._

_“Ah! You are probably the most popular guy in your batch, or even the college if you ask me.” The other guy bantered._

_This brings Daniel’s attention to people around him and finally noticed it. Young women were whispering and chattering while looking at him. Three or four people, even men, were circling him and Minhyun, adding constant remarks to their conversation. “Who are they?” he wondered. He rolled his eyes with the sudden attention._

_“See? Told you.” Minhyun was grinning with bravado._

_Daniel found the attention sudden, since only a day have passed since the start of university. Unfortunately, this is not a brand new development for him. If he says so, frankly and mercilessly, he is definitely born with an above-average, no, attention-grabbing appearance. During his high school days, he had several confession lining his weeks and on that time, he extremely had fun. He had felt like he had it all, the looks made him sit at the top of the vicious high school hierarchy, guaranteed a painless high school life. However, one day, while rushing to get back to the classroom to get his forgotten pencil case, he overheard all his friends talking. And sure enough, talking about him._

_“Eh. The kid feels like he is some kind of a god by getting a bit of attention.”_

_“He is not even that good-looking. Funny he think we are best friends.”_

_Then the whole class laughed. While Daniel was standing outside, hearing all these words and… nothing. The days went by normally, as usual, like nothing ever happened. Daniel joined their wild antics, played games with them, skipped some few classes, but he felt empty. Nothing._

_And that’s how he cannot even be bothered with all this compliment storm happening around him. He can smile, he can laugh, he can joke and banter around, but nothing. Only an empty feeling remain. And he will go back home feeling exhausted, spent like playing a whole charade of a “Daniel, the popular and funny guy” for the whole day. Deep down in him, he knows every single one eyeing him right now thinks the same. Same as those friends who shared food with him, same as those who slept over at his room, same as those who called him their friend._

_As a result, as soon as he felt the spirit of the wine creeping up in his senses, he got out of that karaoke and marched outside to find a place to sober up, alone. And that’s how he came into this pizzeria._

_“Ah! I can’t feel my legs anymore.”_ he thought while munching on a slice of greasy, and clearly not-good-for-you pizza. He drank so fast a while ago that all those beer and liquors are finally catching up on him. He shifts his attention to the laid-back cashier and server, wearing a bored expression waiting for the night shift to end.

 

Then, he checks his phone. _“2:57 AM”_

 

The night only grows deeper and deeper and at long last, the spirit of the wine won over his own spirit and he is down.

 

Then, a few moments later, he scrambles for his phone, forcing his eyes to open to check for the time, _“4:01 AM”_

_“Darn it!”_  he internally exclaimed. Now, checking on his body condition, _“Hands and feet, good, not numb anymore. Head, uhm, okay but nauseous. Also my face, I can feel my face. But I still feel heavy”_ All these flurry of actions jotted his consciousness awake and surprisingly, he finds a young man with cloud-like, brown hair staring at him.

 

“Uhm-” His voice cracked so he pushed a few sounds from his throat. “Uhm. Who are you?”

 

The man stared blankly at him. In Daniel’s point of view, the young man, probably not even a university student, looks innocent, with his wide, doe eyes and unequal eyelids.

 

“Uh. I’m Daniel. Do you like pineapples?” He blurted out. He does not know where this sudden impulse or bravado sprang forth but he keeps going.

 

“I see that you’re the quiet type, huh?” slurring his words, “Let me just tell you a story then, huh?” He raises his eyebrows looking for confirmation from the mysterious man.

 

The young man stares at him further, tilting his head slightly to the right.

 

_“So cute.”_  he thought but he continues “So, I was out hanging out with new people. I decided to turn a new leaf in my life now, since, you know, uh university and all that stuff.” He sneaks a glance again. In all honesty, his audience seem to really listen to him, staring at him with almost a concern.

 

“Then, I decided to make friends and tried to be brave and talk to them and do fun things for tonight.” he paused and took a long sigh,

 

“But nothing works for me, I still feel empty, I won’t even dare say sad or even alone.” Now, Daniel Kang is blurting and is word-vomiting. And thank the heavens for bottled courage, maybe he just let it all out.

 

“Maybe all friendships once you get pass a certain point become empty, you know, that thrill of meeting people is just gone.” he got pensive for a moment and took a bite of that left over pizza. It still looked fine, edible.

 

“It’s a stupid problem, right?” he laughed, but the young man’s face turned into a hint of a frown. The man raises his hands and beckons the server. The server languidly moves to the table and looks at the brown haired kid. He then points at menu and the server just nods in response, almost like a silent transaction.

 

“What did you get huh? Kiddo.” Daniel started calling him “kiddo” now, since the kid really looks and behaves like a child, he even imagines him ordering a milk a while ago. But expectations always fail reality and what arrived is a kind of a stir-fry dish. It seems like root with holes, repetitive holes forming a circle. _“Oh, lotus roots. They serve traditional food in a pizzeria? What is this?”_  He looks dumbfoundedly at the dish in front of him. The kid mistakes his expression for a glint of hunger and pushes the plate to him, while looking at him worriedly.

 

“No, I’m good. I’m just surprised of the sudden stir-fried lotus root.” He chuckled. Deep down inside his thoughts, he knows everything that is happening is absurd. An adult man spouting nonsense to a high school student in a pizzeria and the strange appearance of a stir dry dish in a pizzeria. The existence itself of this young man in this ungodly hour is questionable in its own right. Maybe he is dreaming, he thought.

 

This thought shifted his focus to looking clearly, or as clearly as he can under the hum of alcohol, at the kiddo. He is munching happily on the lotus roots like it is some kind of dessert. _“Really strange.”_ But this fixation to the way his eating made Daniel see his up-close now. He has this almond-shaped eyes and dark iris, reminding him of the roundness of a lychee. The kiddo scrunched his eyes in happiness after taking a bite of the lotus root. _“Definitely a lychee, his gaze looks so sweet.”_  He grinned, then uncontrollably laughed but this does not grab, even a tiny bit, the enraptured attention of the kid on his late night, or early morning, snack. By then, Daniel’s attention turns to the overall countenance of the young man, and his sucked his breath from surprise. This might be the alcohol speaking, but the young man, with doe-eyed, lychee eyes, is so breathtaking that the neon lights surrounding him bend to his embrace. His face eclipses the moon outside and embarrasses the awkwardly placed roses printed on the pizzeria’s wallpaper. _“So this is what a god-like beauty is.”_ Daniel exclaimed, then once again, he bursts out laughing. He feels like all his worry about something about his above-average face is overshadowed by the beauty in front of his blurry eyes.

 

“Hey!” He shouted excitedly, effectively shocking the young man and stopping him from eating. “Let’s be friends! I’m Daniel. I’m a student of that university” Standing and pointing giddily to he direction of the university, or wherever his drunk head pointed at that moment. This quick succession and burst of energy from the lethargic drunkard confused the kid. By then, the kid reached into his pocket for a pen and wrote on a piece of tissue. He pushes the letter to Daniel.

 

_“I’ll be your friend.”_  read the tissue. Daniel starts smiling like a puppy and picks up the young man’s hands to place onto his head as he collapses again to sleep.

 

“Hey, student! Hey!” berates a loud, annoyed voice. “Hey! Wake up! It’s 30 minutes passed closing. Don’t give me any more job to do”

 

The first rays of the sun hit Daniel’s face and after his eyes carefully adjusting to the light, what greeted him is the part-timer on the cashier, scowling deeply unto him.

 

“Hey! I can’t leave if I can’t clean up that spot so go home now! It’s 6:14 already”

 

Daniel pulls himself up from the seat as he feels the part-timer guides, or more aptly described as pushed outside the pizzeria. He carefully examines one last time his pockets to check if he still have his wallet and phone with him. _“Thank god. Everything’s still with me.”_  He thanks his lucky stars that he was not mugged after being dead drunk throughout the night. On the moment that he pocketed his phone, he felt a paper inside his pockets and pulled it out and unfurled it. It was on this time that he remembered everything that transpired last night.

 

Staring at the tissue, still reading _“I’ll be your friend.”_  This is the confirmation that what happened was not a dream. So he hurriedly rushed back to the pizzeria.

 

“We’re close!” shouts the part-timer. “Oh! It’s you again! Go out now, because of you, I have to stay here for half an hour” grumbled he.

 

“Sorry! I just came back to ask you if there was any guy that I was talking to last night?”

 

“Talking to?” he answered puzzled.

 

“Yeah. He seems like a high school student, maybe in his senior year.” Daniel quickly paused. The confused man suddenly realised that there is no way that a high school student I allowed to roam around this district, filled with clubs and drunkards during the night. He thought that maybe, it was all his imagination after all. Besides, from what he remembers, the man looked too good to be true.

 

“I’m pretty sure, I never heard anyone talking except for you.” This confirms Daniel’s guess. “Because you were speaking with the son of the owner who can't speak.” The worker bursts out laughing like he told a joke.

 

Daniel’s expression turned sour but he hid it immediately and asked. “What is his name? Is he here frequently?”

 

“Well, kids are not usually allowed here for the night shift but he sometimes hangs out to wait for his father, even helping out most of the times.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“Ah and by the way, his name is Daehwi, Lee Daehwi”

 

“Okay! Thank you very much! I’ll get going.”

 

And with that Daniel’s day has taken an odd but welcome turn. He walked the streets back home jolly while caressing his head from the left hangover. However, all of these are worth it, because he knows that something amazing is going to happen from now on.


End file.
